The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
It was during that drive and there was a farewell meeting at one of the
Salvation Army huts that night for the boys who were going up to the
trenches. It was a beautiful and touching meeting as always on such
occasions. Starting with singing whatever the boys picked out, it
dropped quickly into the old hymns that the boys loved and then to a
simple earnest prayer, setting forth the desperate case of those who
were going out to fight, and appealing to the everlasting Saviour for
forgiveness and refuge. They lingered long about the fair young girl
who was leading them, listening to her earnest, plain words of
instruction how to turn to the Saviour of the world in their need, how
to repent of their sins and take Christ for their Saviour and
Sanctifier. No man who was in that meeting would dare plead ignorance
of the way to be saved. Many signified their desire to give their lives
into the keeping of Christ before they went to the front. The meeting
broke up reluctantly and the men drifted out and away, expecting soon
to be called to go. But something happened that they did not go that
night. Meantime, a company had just returned from the front, weary,
hungry, worn and bleeding, with their nerves unstrung, and their
spirits desperate from the tumult and horror of the hours they had just
passed in battle. They needed cheering and soothing back to normal. The
girls were preparing to do this with a bright, cheery entertainment,
when a deputation of boys from the night before returned. There was a
wistful gleam in the eyes of the young Jew who was spokesman for the
group as he approached the lassie who had led the meeting.
“Say, Cap, you see we didn’t go up.”
“I see,” she smiled happily.
“Say, Cap, won’t you have another farewell meeting to-night?” he asked
with an appealing glance in his dark eyes.
“Son, we’ve arranged something else just now for the fellows who are
coming back,” she said gently, for she hated to refuse such a request.
“Oh, say, Cap, you can have that later, can’t you? We want another
meeting now.”
There was something so pleading in his voice and eyes, so hungry in the
look of the waiting group, that the young Captain could not deny him.
She looked at him hesitatingly, and then said:
“All right. Go out and tell the boys.”
He hurried out and soon the company came crowding in. That hour the
very Lord came down and communed with them as they sang and knelt to
pray, and not a heart but was melted and tender as they went out when
it was over in the solemn darkness of the early morning. A little later
the order came and they “went over.”
It was a sharp, fierce fight, and the young Jew was mortally wounded.
Some comrades found him as he lay white and helpless on the ground, and
bending over saw that he had not long to stay. They tried to lift him
and bear him back, but he would not let them. He knew it was useless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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